Fireworks
by Jacqueline King
Summary: "Okay, so maybe setting the room on fire wasn't the sort of thing that could merit him deserving to be on the team." Billy's pyrotechnics bring him closer to Teddy, and start to set off a few sparks.


**Author's Ramble: **So I found this old thing today. I must have started writing it almost a year ago, but I just reread it and finished it off. Hope you enjoy, and if you were hoping for something I haven't updated in forever... Sorry. I do that. Don't hate me. I give you fluffy gay super boys. Reviews are appreciated, as I've never written a Young Avengers fanfic before and there isn't enough of this pairing 'round these parts.

* * *

Billy pictured setting the whole room in the abandoned Avengers Mansion on fire. That was the sort of thing that could merit him being useful in the group with the three other boys who seemed to know what the hell they were doing.

"_So you have superhuman strength and dexterity?" _

"_Yeah. Pretty cool huh?"_

"_Oh yeah? Well—WHOOSH!" _

Yeah, maybe internal dialogues like that was the reason why he didn't have any friends.

"BILLY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Nate's voice was barely discernable from the roaring laughter coming from the boy named Teddy. _Teddy_… Teddy was a whole new reason to figure out how to do something better than give people nasty static shocks.

_There's no way in hell a guy who emulates the freakin' Hulk is going to want to go gay for a lame rip-off of the Scarlet Witch. _

Billy snapped out of his thoughts just in time to realize he had zapped one of the old wooden chairs with a bolt of electricity in his silent frustration with himself. It had burst into flame and was now catching fire onto the old curtains.

Okay, so maybe setting the room on fire wasn't the sort of thing that could merit him deserving to be on the team.

* * *

Billy regarded the piece of paper in his hand with reluctant happiness.

Happy, because he had always pictured the boy he liked handing him a note slyly before glancing over his shoulder with a smirk on his face before walking away.

Reluctant, because he wasn't very pleased at what was written inside.

_You need some serious help with that spell stuff._

Happy, because there was more.

_Why don't you come over to my place tomorrow to train just the two of us? My mom has some books that might help. _

Reluctant, because Teddy Altman could be such a loveable jerk and not even know it.

_ Just promise not to set my apartment on fire._

_

* * *

_

Billy never liked going over to a friend's house for the first time. Not that he had a whole lot of experience with hanging out with friends outside of school.

So he was wondering how he'd gotten to be sitting awkwardly in Teddy Altman's bombshell bedroom.

On his bed.

Next to the latest issue of Ultimate Iron Man and a pair of boxers.

Billy had to remind himself that _normal _guys wouldn't find that awkward. He had to remind himself that if he wanted to look at all _normal _so Teddy wouldn't automatically kick him out of the house he had to stop staring at the boxers. He had to stop picturing Teddy wearing them.

And nothing else.

"Here they are!"

Billy jumped.

_Smooth, loser. _

He had to remind himself to keep the internal dialogue to a minimum.

Teddy waded through the piles of clothes and comics to flop down next to the nervous witch. Billy noticed the stack of books held in the blond's large hands. Billy's eyes flashed up to Teddy's face. He didn't want to look like he was staring at the other boy's hands (which he was, but that was beside the point). Teddy caught the anxiety in the witch's eyes. "You look like you were going through my stuff." Teddy's eyes were serious and his expression suspicious.

"W-what? No!"

"Relax, Kaplan. I was _kidding."_

"Oh. Ha. Ha!"

_Smooth, dumbass_.

What was that about the internal dialogue?

"Sorry about the mess, though," Teddy was saying as he threw his boxers to the side with just the faintest hint of embarrassment behind his words. "I don't really hang out in my room all that often anymore. Not with, y'know, the team meetings and stuff."

"It's okay," Billy said quickly. Too quickly.

_Shit. _

Teddy was looking at him with his head tilted to the side. Billy could tell he was wondering what the hell was wrong with his teammate today. The witch looked down at the books and said, "So what's this? Hocus-pocus for Dummies?"

_There you go. That's at least sounding a bit more normal._

"Basically," Teddy laughed, holding up Volume 1: The Dos and Don'ts of Spell Casting. "I don't really know why my mom has these to tell the truth…"

"Has she set anything on fire yet?"

Teddy's laugh was intoxicating.

"No, I think you've got her beat on that one."

* * *

Billy was hovering above the ground, his palms itching with static. In a swift movement, he shot up twenty feet into the air and aimed his palms down at a small charred target on the ground of the Avenger's overgrown courtyard. A crackle erupted from his outstretched hands and a bolt of blue-white lightning struck the center of the makeshift target, exploding in a circle of light.

He gracefully floated down to the ground.

He'd been practicing.

"I think I'll give that one an 8.5." Teddy was lounging off to the side by one of the crumbling walls of the garden. He was watching Billy with that smirk on his face that the witch sort of wanted to smack off.

"You judge harshly," Billy accused.

"I don't deny you had good form, but it was lacking a certain… dramatic element."

"And what might that be?" Billy sauntered over, pretending to look offended.

"You didn't set anything on fire."

"Shut up."

* * *

Billy was learning a lot about Teddy as they practiced as a team, and just the two of them. One of the first things he learned was Teddy was rather… sporadic to say the least.

So when Eli joked about breaking through the ornate rose window of the Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Billy only smiled and followed behind the boy codenamed Hulkling as he smashed through the window to attack the gunned men below.

Nate was throwing a hissy fit, but it was worth seeing their faces.

They'd done a few missions before. Billy was getting used to aiming the lightening strategically, and never giving it enough power to kill someone. The whole thing almost seemed too easy.

"Huh. That wasn't so bad," Teddy was saying as he disarmed a man and proceeded to disassemble the gun. Billy turned his way, hands still crackling with energy as he smiled. His smile faded quickly as he saw the man Teddy had just disarmed pull out a knife.

"Trust me," he grunted as he aimed to stab the shape shifter in the side, "it gets worse."

"Hulkling, behind you!" Billy was amazed Teddy's real name didn't slip from his mouth. His body froze up, and that damn internal dialogue started again.

_Look at you. You can't even protect the guy you're crazy about._

_ I can't move. Blame my body._

_ Uh, yes, you can you idiot. Your brain is connected to the rest of you, at least it should be. _

_ Oh. Right._

_ Sides, you don't have to move. Just shoot the damn lightning!_

_ RIGHT!_

Of course that all happened in about three seconds, so Billy wasn't really sure exactly when he shot the lightning out of his hands towards the blond guy waving the knife.

He figured it was either milliseconds before or after Teddy shouted, "I got him!" and sent him barreling through a row of pews with a well-placed blow to the stomach.

"You certainly did," the witch sighed as he landed beside the shape-shifter, only just aware that he was breathing again.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Teddy laughed and glanced over his shoulder at his teammate.

His eyes were smiling.

_Oh my god. _

"No, thanks to _you." _The words were out of Billy's mouth before he could realize how utterly lame and pathetic they were.

_Oh smooth going there, maestro. What next, you gonna get on one knee and SERENADE him?_

Stop. With. The. Internal. Dialogue. Already.

Teddy was looking at him straight in the eyes now. It was like the whole place started melting on the sides of Billy's vision. Was he inching closer, was that just wishful thinking?

"Do you smell smoke?"

Yeah, they were definitely leaning towards each other.

"Yeah… kinda…"

"GUYS!"

Eli's voice shattered the moment.

"That's because that last lightning storm of yours kinda started a _fire." _

Billy's eyes shot upwards, towards the wall he was facing to see it really was on fire. Teddy snapped around and backed up before a fiery column landed on his glorious face. "Oh…" he mumbled.

"My bad." It was all the witch could say. His mind was still thirteen seconds in the past.

* * *

After the fiasco that was supposed to be a rescue of a wedding party, Billy was dirt tired. It appeared the rest of the team was just as beat, considering Eli and Nate were fighting like a married couple and Teddy just sat and watched like usual.

After Eli left, Billy turned to leave just as Teddy did.

"We're both headed for the East Village, right?" Teddy smiled despite his fatigue. "I'll walk with you."

"Gotta change first," Billy reminded him, looking down at his rather showy costume. "Don't think it's keeping cover if I walked across the park and half a neighborhood in full gear."

Teddy laughed his laugh, and the tips of Billy ears pinked. God, was he glad it was dark.

"Yeah, lemme take care of that," he said. He tensed his shoulders for just a moment before the giant frame of the green kid-Hulk had melted away to a muscled blond Teddy.

"Friggin' shapeshifters," Billy muttered as he made for the back of the Avenger Mansion. He heard Teddy chuckle as he walked away. He wedged open the boarded up window they used to get through and went for his clothes. He'd just taken off his cape and shirt when he heard the board creek open again and he turned around quickly to see Teddy walk in.

_Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Ohmigod._

_ What? Why is this so bad? He's seen you change before!_

_ But not alone, not like this, not after having a flirtatious, dangerous moment in the face of certain death!_

_ You're so gay._

He was for once happy for the internal dialogue, because it distracted him from the fact Teddy hadn't moved. He'd just stood there and waited as Billy stared back at him. Neither said a word.

After a few seconds (but still too long for it to have been casual surprise), Billy turned back to what he was doing. He pulled on his plain t-shirt and made quick work at replacing his tights (_Ohmigod, you actually wear tights. How did you NOT realize how gay that was earlier?) _for jeans.

He turned to face Teddy, who had a very interesting look on his face. It looked like confusion mixed with anxiety.

"What's up?" Billy said automatically as he stuffed his costume back into his backpack and rejoined the shapeshifter outside. He was immensely proud of how cool and collected he sounded.

"Earlier tonight," Teddy said as they started walking through the park, "we stopped fighting and just sorta stared at each other."

Teddy never was one to beat around the bush.

"Yeah…"

"Well, I was just wondering if you… God, this sounds dumb."

There weren't just butterflies in Billy's stomach—the butterflies were eating away at his stomach and making their way to his lungs.

"C'mon Teddy, you know it won't sound dumb. You're talking to the guy who regularly sets stuff on fire and can only think to say 'my bad'." Billy managed to sound almost like his normal self.

Teddy didn't laugh like usual. He just smiled and avoided looking at Billy directly.

"I was wondering if you shocked me by accident."

Billy stopped walking. "What?"

"I just… see, I knew it'd sound stupid."

Teddy stopped to face Billy, but he still wasn't _looking_ at the mage.

"No, I just don't get what you mean." Billy watched as Teddy's eyes searched over the grass mounds of the park.

_Dammit! Just look at me!_

"I got all lightheaded, and my skin tingled and then went numb for a second and… I just thought, maybe you shocked me."

_Holy shit. I think he likes me._

Flashbulbs burst in Billy's head. That's probably why he was blinking like an idiot just in time for Teddy to actually look at him in the eyes. Teddy let out a forced laugh and started walking away before Billy's light-assaulted head could register it.

"See," Teddy was muttering. "I knew it was stupid."

_STOP HIM NOW!_

"No, Ted, wait," Billy lunged forward (_Graceful, as always maestro) _and grabbed Teddy's arm before he could go any further, "It's not st—"

But words failed him as his fingers made contact with Teddy's bare skin. Both boys seized up for a moment as an almost visible wave of electricity went through them. Billy felt his core sizzling with power that seemed to radiate from the spot where he had contact with Teddy. It lasted for maybe only a second or two, but afterwards it left both boys gasping for air.

"What," Teddy coughed. "What… the hell… was that?"

Due to the angle he had been at when grabbing at Teddy's arm, Billy found himself on the ground as Teddy addressed this question.

"I have no freakin' clue," was all Billy could say. And that was the truth, although he suspected it had something to do with how much he wanted to just grab Teddy and strip him down.

Teddy glanced down at him and let out a very loud, bark of a laugh. Billy began laughing too, mostly because he was embarrassed and also because of the joy on Teddy's face. Instead of offering to help him up, the bulky shapeshifter promptly flopped down on the ground next to Billy, and was still laughing.

As they were both nearing hysterics, a crazy, brilliant, stupid and wonderful idea hit Billy:

_You should kiss him._

And before the other voice in his head could elaborate on just how _stupid _this notion was, he leaned over, his hands in his lap, and kissed the stilling chuckling Teddy Altman.

His lips promptly froze together, and—Billy noted—were kinda chapped. He had his eyes scrunched up so he couldn't see the look of shock and indignation that just _had _to be on the blond's face.

But then, a miracle occurred, and it took Billy a few hours later to decide once and for all that it hadn't been a hallucination.

Billy Kaplan distinctly felt Teddy's lips relax, and _start kissing back. _Then suddenly the shapeshifter's big, calloused hands were cupping his face.

And for once there was no internal dialogue. Only the sound of their uneven breathes as they kissed, and kissed.

The tingling feeling of being shocked was running through Billy's body again, but not unpleasantly. His hand slipped as he tried to wrap his arm around Teddy's broad shoulders. The whole _world _was perfect so long as this illusion lasted and he could always feel Teddy's lips on his.

And then quite suddenly it ended with Teddy pulling away far too quickly.

Billy opened his eyes with a start.

"Why—"

"Trust me," Teddy said breathlessly, "I wanted that to last as much as you did, but…" He broke into a grin, and pointed to a line of hedge behind the park benches.

Apparently, whilst Billy was lost in the world of Teddy's lips, his hand had slipped and shot a bolt of blue lightning at said hedge. Which were now on fire.

"_." _

Billy's eyes had gone white with his mantra, and with a poof of smoke, the flames extinguished.

"Now why couldn't you have done that earlier?" Teddy mused.

"Trust me, I have never had as much incentive to put out a fire as I do now… so, where were we?"

"Right… about… _here." _

"_Mmhmmm_."


End file.
